A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 12, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 9:14-29. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 9th chapter:
And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The faithless generation. You know, Jesus seems exasperated by these people that are around him. I mean, they have been coming to him for absolutely everything, haven’t they? They have looked for miracle after miracle, sign after sign, the scribes and the Pharisees are testing him, he has been approached by even the demons and Jesus has met all of these challenges very, very well. So well, in fact, that he must be something special. He's not just a man. Of course, we know that he's God. Now that wasn't completely revealed to the people. There are those, some of the faith that did see that, but, throughout Mark, Jesus does something very interesting when he does these miracles, these signs. More often than not, he looks at the people that he's healed, that he's cleansed, that he's made whole, that he's cast a demon out of, and he tells them, Don't say anything to anybody.
This is what theologians have called the messianic secret. It's just a fancy way of saying Jesus wants to keep everything secret, especially about him being Messiah. Why that is a lot of people have speculated and there's a whole lot of theories, but I think the most convincing one is not that Jesus was saying, well, you go be quiet about this, don’t tell anybody, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Then they would go and spread the word. I don't think that's what it was. It's that Jesus was telling them, Don’t go and say anything to anybody about what's happened to you because if they do, they're going to get distracted by the fact that there's a miracle, that there's a sign, and not that I'm the Messiah, not that I was the one sent by God. And mixed with that, It's not yet my time.
Jesus would have to get through his whole ministry. He'd have to go through those three years before finally he set his face, as Isaiah says, like flint towards Jerusalem, toward the cross which he would carry to the hill of Golgotha and die for the sins of the world, including your own. Jesus wasn't ready yet because the Father's time had not yet been appointed, but it doesn't seem to stop Jesus. You probably imagine that if Jesus really wanted people to believe, he should let the word spread that he's the Messiah that he can do great things. And he's done marvelous things for all of the people who've come to him. He's made blind men see, deaf men hear, lame men walk and leap. He's cast demons out of people, he's cleansed people from their discharge of blood. He’s even raised the dead. You would think that he'd want that to spread. You'd think that if he did that, people might start to see, but Jesus isn't that bread king. We've talked about that a lot over the course of the last three, four months, this bread king, this king who gives people what they want, what they're desiring. And the meaning of it really is found in the phrase, bread king, a king who just gives you bread to eat, satisfying your belly.
Now, this kind of king, Jesus doesn’t want to be. When Jesus fed the 5,000 men and all their families with bread and fish, they wanted to make Jesus into a bread king, one who just gives them what they want. And you kind of think, all right, fine. So they're thinking that he's a bread king, but he could correct people, right? He could teach them. But they have been taught. They’ve been given the word, they’ve got what they need to understand, and still their eyes are shut. Every time he sits down and teaches somebody, he's teaching them about him being the Messiah. He's pointing to the fact that he's going to save the world. Even with all of that, the people still have no faith. They walk away. Think of in John 6, where Jesus says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And what happens? The people walk away because they have no faith. They are not eating the flesh of Christ. They are not drinking the blood of Christ and they walk away. So many leave that Jesus, kind of almost despondent, looks at his apostles and asks, Are you also going to leave me? Peter has a good confession, Lord, to whom shall we gp?You have the words of eternal life. But the people are not understanding.
And so we catch up with Jesus as the crowds are approaching him. And they're arguing with the scribes. The scribes are kind of this weird group of men who write down the scriptures, that's their job. And the scriptures then get disseminated out into all the different synagogues. And they did wonderful work because a lot of their work we think has been passed down to us. We're still finding fragments of the stuff that they wrote. But the scribes, to me, it seems, were heavily influenced by the Sadducees. And the Sadducees were an interesting group of people, even among the Jews, who denied the spiritual, they denied the fact that there were angels, they denied the fact that there were demons, they even denied the resurrection. And so the scribes are there and they're arguing with this crowd and Jesus walks into them and says, What are you arguing about, guys?
A lone man speaks up. And he says, I brought my son to be healed from this demon, my son to be healed by your apostles. And they can't do it. We can guess that the scribes are saying there’s nothing to be done because there are no demons, and the man is saying there are and one is in his son, and the crowd are debating and they’re berating the apostles of Jesus because they haven’t been able to cast out this demon. The man is at a loss. He asks Jesus to do it.
Jesus, you can just kind of imagine, looks at the man, and he's looking at the crowd, and he's looking at the scribes with his mouth just open, right? The guy came to him with a faith that said, I need something. Now, interestingly, the man leaves with a faith that's greater than that. Think of last week, where we talked about the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus, asking that her daughter would be healed of the demon and how she came with this type of weak faith. And after her first encounter with Jesus, the first word that he said to her, she repented. She answered with an air of repentance and admitted that Jesus, what he called her, that she was a dog, was true. She had no standing. She wasn't supposed to be allowed into the house of Israel. She's worse than the worst. And so she responded, yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off the master's table. She had a repentant faith by the end of her encounter with Jesus, and we, I have sincere confidence, will meet her in the resurrection and get to ask her what that was like to talk to Jesus in this way.
This man comes in the same way. He has a weak faith, a faith that this guy can give him what he wants, but not much else. And Jesus is exasperated. He calls this man and everyone around him a faithless generation. How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? And Jesus is looking at these people thinking, this is insane. You know the scriptures; you know exactly what has happened in them. You should know everything in that points to me. I am the coming Messiah; you should have faith in the one who does cast out the demons. I mean, it's so clear throughout all the scripture. This is what he's come to do.
So they bring this boy to Jesus, this exasperated Jesus, and the boy’s laying there and convulsing, right? The demon is convulsing him, trying to throw him into the fire. You can kind of see it happening. And Jesus says, how long has this been happening? The guy says, well, since childhood, of course. And then he says, awkwardly, If you can help me, please have compassion and do something. And again, Jesus is exasperated. If I can? It’s like, What do you mean? Can I do anything? Of course, I can do anything. I mean, you might think that this guy has this and this crowd kind of has this faith that this kind of thing can happen. And you see that kind of going on. But again, if you put that in light of the bread king, well, that starts to make a little bit more sense.
Jesus just looks at him and confronts the man, not even looking at his son, You have no faith. If I can do anything? All things are possible for the one who believes. With this, Jesus is showing this man that he does not have the faith to believe. Now you would kind of expect that Jesus would say, All things are possible with God. But remember the messianic secret. Jesus is not not saying that they're not possible with God, but he's specifically pointing to the person who believes, because the one who believes, comes to God, hoping and putting their strength of expectation in the request.
It's not a, well, if you can, Lord do this; it's a Lord, this is what I want, this is what I need. And if it be your will, please do this. In this kind of request, we admit that Christ, that God, has the power to do the thing that we're asking and Christ will give us that thing that we're asking for. Of course, we know it may not be now, but in the hope of the resurrection to come, it will be done. This is especially in regards to our bodies or the bodies of the people around us or the suffering that we endure, the persecution that the church is facing. In all these things, we ask for compassion from God. But we do it with a strength of expectation. Lord, stop the persecution of your church. Lord help those who are sick and struggling. Heal them in their bodies of their diseases. Lord, help me, I’m suffering. I'm sorrowful. I'm distressed. I'm depressed. I am perplexed in every way. Lord heal me, make me whole.
We don't go to Jesus with weak prayers. We go to him with strong prayer. Not because we think that God is going to somehow bow to our strength, but because we have hope in the God, who's able to do these things. One thing always to remember is taught by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is not the will of the person asking that makes the difference. It is the God who chooses to do so. Who chooses what's going to happen? Always God. Jesus prayed, If it be your will, Lord, let this cup pass from me. Jesus prays in the garden, Yet, not my will, but your will be done. And so also, our prayers as we go before our Father should be strong yet humble, confessing, if it'd be your will let this be done.
The fascinating thing revealed by the scriptures is that God’s will is that his people be made whole. God's will is that his people will not suffer. God's will is that we not be persecuted. Even so, sometimes he withholds his hand, not forever, but for a time. It may be a day, a week, a month, and might even be to the end of our lives. But, when we close our eyes to this life and open them into the next, when we see our Jesus face to face, as he carries us up out of our graves, as he puts our souls together with our bodies and cleanses us from all of our infirmities, all of our sicknesses, all of our suffering, and eliminates the persecution of the church endures in this world, there, the believer finds that all of the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. All that we’ve asked has been granted.
Jesus looked at the generation that was there with him and called them faithless; how much more so today. All things are possible for the one who believes, well, how are we doing with belief today? To me, it's certainly seems like even us Christians have forgotten that God can do the miraculous. We Christians do not come to God with prayers of strength, but we come to him with weak prayers asking, well, Lord, I just need this. Or I just need this. And you know, if you're able to do it, just give me this. There’s nothing wrong with asking God for what you need and for what you want, but do it with the expectation that God will hear your prayer and will answer it. And he'll give you what he needs, what you need in his time. In this way, our Lord demonstrates that our faith should be in the one who is stronger than the world. Our faith should be in he who has overcome the world.
We don’t demand of God, we don't ask that our will be done, because we're not capable of overcoming the world. James tells us we can't even tame our own tongue. What chance do we have against the entire world as it comes at us with all of its sin and depravity? We don't have a chance of standing up or conquering anything. If we can’t conquer the world, can we really make such demands of God that we tell him to bow to our wills? We have failed in every way imaginable, and we have fallen in to sin. We have given in to temptation and followed the desires of our hearts. Where has that gotten us?
That's why we need repentance. And that's why in repentance, we always find forgiveness, because we don't have a chance. As our hearts are turned away from our sin, as we find that we are relying on the faith that has been granted to us by the Holy Spirit, as we see God as our Savior, not because we could do it ourselves but he did it pretty good, but because he is the only one who can accomplish our salvation, and through his death we are redeemed from sin, we find that he freely forgives all of us. Form the cross on which he died, he declares you righteous, forgiven, and he turns your eyes to what he will accomplish for you in your death, namely that he will raise you to everlasting life.
So, in this repentant faith, we don't put our hope in what we want, in what we need. We put our faith in the one who can provide what we want, who can provide what we need. And you see how this works. When we do this, it's not that we have a promise that God is going to say, All right, yeah, let's do this right now. Although sometimes we do hope for that, we put our hope in that God will answer our prayer in the days which are to come, and specifically that last day that we look forward to in the resurrection of the dead.
When we have a weak faith, when we come to God and we're asking for stuff because we’ve put our hope in that stuff, like this man put his hope in the the healing of his boy but not in the messiah, we need to consider, are we asking him according to our hearts, are we asking him according to the weakness of our flesh, or are we asking him according to the faith that he has granted to us by the Holy Spirit? Are we coming in prayer to him who has given us the faith to believe, or are we coming to him with the strength of ourselves?
This might feel strange to talk about because, honestly, I don’t think the Church has paid a lot of attention to this over the last generations, but we must have the strength to pray. Prayer is so important to the Christian life, not only to give thanks to God, not only to adore God and all of his virtue and all of his attributes; certainly it is for these things. But, chiefly, we come to God, confessing our sin, confessing who we are, so that, ultimately, we may ask of him what it is that is on our hearts, that we ask of him what is in our souls, that we ask of him to heal the weak flesh, either of ourselves or of our neighbors. That's what prayer is supposed to do, to demonstrate to others, and to ourselves, who our God is. Our prayer is not there to please God. In fact, we don't pray to please God. Certainly, prayer does please God, when we come to him with his word, when we are centered around that, when we receive the gifts that he would have to give us. He is pleased when we pray to him centered and surrounded by these things. But we don't pray to please God; we pray at his invitation. He invites us to speak to him as our Father, that we might know that our God is able to fulfill our prayers. That is why all of the answers to the promises of Christ are yes and amen. Yes, it shall be so. Yes, I will heal your body. Yes, I will remove your suffering. Yes, I will raise you and all those who believe in me from the dead unto life everlasting Our Lord is good and gracious and he does fulfill his promise in these things. We have no need to fear because, just like this man who responded to Jesus's admonition in faith, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, so also do we now respond with repentant faith. And there we see that we are weak, but the gift of faith granted to you is strong, for it is from the Lord, and he is good, gracious, and he will help your unbelief and give you the strength of faith to endure until the end.
It may be that your needs are met, just like this man's need was met for his boy. And it may be that you have to wait. Maybe, in this life, you never see the fulfillment of that need met. But, as you go to our Lord in prayer, I guarantee you that you will begin to see how weak you are and how strong he is. As your life centers around the one who has the strength to raise himself from the dead after three days, just as he promised, you will also find the repentant faith to believe that he will raise you from the grave as well. And he will make you whole in him, to be like him forever. Never again will you come to Jesus as a bread king, but you will see him as the Messiah revealed before the entire world. And you, along with all people, will bow down and worship, for you will see that your faith has not been in vain, but put into the one who fulfills his promises. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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